The minister’s a fraud! Well, only in so far as he’s not actually a minister – he’s a doctor, my Uncle Ron.

I found this photo in my Granddad’s album of other photos of Ron and family from around 1984. I was rummaging for inspiration for my Sepia Saturday post and looking for a “men at work” photo. You know how sometimes you’re on a roll and the ideas and words flow just fine, and other times you just can’t get it together? I got distracted by this picture and wondered why Dr Ron would be photographed in a pulpit.

Lightbulb moment!

Ron’s grandfather, William (my great grandfather) who was the father of Norman (from last week’s post with cutie Rose) and my grandfather, Douglas, and another 5 sons, was the Church of Scotland Minister at Cults Church in Pitlessie, Fife. I wondered if this was Ron standing in the pulpit where his grandfather had preached from 1901 onwards. A quick Google and I found the Undiscovered Scotland Website which shows a much better quality photo of the interior of…. Cults Kirk! My grandparents must have taken a trip to the church with Ron when he was visiting and snapped a photo of him posing where his grandfather stood.

So I may have spent the afternoon messing about with photos and meandering the internet, but I stumbled upon an important photo that I didn’t even realise I had. Isn’t it great when things work out just fine despite having no plan? :-)

The motivation of posting for SS has help me also in many ways to find things. That is indeed an important discovery. Missed Who Do You Think You Are? last night due to all the hoopla about UofK being in the final four at the NCAA. Everyone in Kentucky is Big Blue crazy, including me and family.
QMM

A great find and a great piece of detective work. There are few finer feelings that the satisfaction you get when you discover a back-story to a photograph. It is like finding a thin digital thread attached to the back of an old, discarded photograph and following it to who knows where.